WordPress and OpenID, the Week After

The blogging about WordPress.com being an OpenID provider, but not (yet?) an OpenID consumer, goes on. We can see (here and here, for example) the conversation turning to the question of whether a site should be a provider only.

My main thoughts on the issue are:

There’s no lack of OpenID providers.

There is a lack of OpenID consumers. To put it another way, not accepting OpenID is beginning to seem like a lack in many web services.

Therefore being a provider only doesn’t seem to be much of a favor to the world, or even to one’s users.

However, being a provider only may be a step along the way to full (i.e. provider and consumer) OpenID support.

I think that the arguments for full support apply with particular force to WordPress/Automattic, given their declared support for standards, openness, etc.